"الملف 35/64 III المعادن في عُمان. أبحاث علماء جيولوجيا مدرساي" [ظ‎‎٤‎٣] (٢٧٦/٩٥)

10
very large capital outlay would have to be faced at the outset, before any
return could be obtained. In these circumstances it is only a very large supply
of exceptional quality which would justify the establishment of a colliery
equipped for an outturn sufficient to give a profitable return on the initial
expenditure. It will be seen from paragraphs 5 to 16 of this report that the
amount of available coal is really ver^ small, and it must consequently be pro
nounced of no economic value, in spite of the excellence of the samples brought
back by Dr. von Krafft. Whether this quality is maintained in the other
exposures and seams can only be known when the samples I have collected have
been assayed, but in view of the fact that the main conclusion reached in
this report would be unaffected, its submission has not been delayed in order
to incorporate the results of these assays.
24. There remains finally for consideration the question whether there
may not possibly be other coal seams more continuous than those examined,
and this question must be answered in the negative. In the coal-bearing beds
the conditions of deposition were evidently such as led to the formation of
limited patches, as opposed to extensive seams, of coal, and it is unlikely that
both these forms of occurrence should be found in the same district. Besides
this I think it unlikely, in view of the interest which has been shown and the
inquiries which have been made, that any exposure of a thick seam of coal
exists in this region which has not been brought to notice. There are doubtless
many exposures of small seams which would be discovered in the course of
a prolonged examination, but probably none of workable thickness.
25. The question of the existence of a workable seam of coal need not,
however, be left to be answered by inference, as, owing to the barrenness of
the country, it can be answered with certainty in the negative. I have men
tioned that the surface of the ground is covered with a sheet of fragments
of stone, and though this sheet is almost continuous over the more level ground,
and very extensive over the hillsides, yet on the slopes it is frequently
interrupted and the underlying bare rock is exposed. In this way complete
sections of all the rocks composing the hills are seen, and in the clear air of the
desert any coal seam of workable thickness would have shown up conspicuously
against the light coloured rocks of which the hills are composed. I do not
make this statement from inference, but from experience; in the Garo hills,
when they had been stripped bare by the earthquake of 1897, I saw the coal
seams most distinctly running in black lines along the bare hillsides, which
were visible from long distances off, and in Baluchistan, where the general
aspect of the country much resembles the part of Arabia I have seen, though it
is not quite so barren, all the coal seams found by me in the hills near Quetta
were in the first instance detected from a distance of some miles. In the hills
south of Sur, in spite of a very careful search of the hillsides, both with and
without the aid of binoculars, I could detect no exposures of coal, and may
state with certainty that these hills contain no seam of sufficient thickness and
extent to be workable.
E. D. OLDHAM, Superintendent,
Geological Survey of India.
Karachi j
The Brd December 1901.